• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.189-196
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• 2012

The heavy moderator acts as the ultimate heat-sink in an operating CANDU reactor. HUKINS has been developed to investigate moderator flow patterns. HUKINS consists of a 38.4-mm-thick cylindrical shell with a 0.95 m inner diameter and 88 sus-tubes that produce a total heat of 10 kW. A chemical visualization method was selected to estimate the occurrence of typical moderator flow patterns. Momentum-dominated flow, mixed flow, and buoyancy-dominated flow are detected under conditions of a heat load of 7.7 kW and input mass flow rates of 4, 7, and 11 L/min. The experimental results are similar to the results of a CFD simulation that consisted of approximately 1.9 million grids and was conducted using the k-${\varepsilon}$ turbulence model. Therefore, both the present experiments and simulations using HUKINS, a 1/8-scale model, represent all three important flow patterns expected in the real CANDU6 reference reactor. Thus, it has been demonstrated that HUKINS could be useful in the study of CANDU6 moderator circulation.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.65-71
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• 2001

The nuclear power plant(NPP) should be shut down for inspection and tests prior to a return to power if the earthquake exceeds the operating basis earthquake(OBE). The OBE at the plant is considered to have been exceeded if the computed cumulative absolute velocity(CAV) from the earthquake record is greater than 0.16g-sec. However, the CAV criterion should be determined considering the seismic and structural characteristics of the plant. An experimental study using shaking table is conducted in this study to evaluate intensity of CAV criterion. Appropriate level of CAV is evaluated based on the test results using the developed seismic damage indicator(SDI) model. The model consists of stacked acrylic cylinders and is developed to behave consistently for each directional seismic load. The result of the experimental study in dicates that the CAV criterion of 0.16g-sec is conservative enough to be applied to Korean NPPs since the CAV value of the seismic input motion of the Korean standard NPPs ranges from 0.3 to 0.5 g-sec. The developed SDI is expected to be useful not only in easily determining OBE exceedance but also in evaluating earthquake damage quantitatively to provide guidelines for better post-shutdown inspection and test.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.611-617
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• 2017

In this study, it was expected that long-term stability against external mechanical external force could be secured if the phosphor layer had ductility. In this study, a bendable $Gd_2O_2S:Tb$ sensitized paper was fabricated by screen printing method and the image uniformity was evaluated through RMS analysis and histogram analysis to investigate the effect of fatigue accumulation due to long-term external force and repetitive external force. As a result, the dominant pixel area is maintained constant and the relative standard deviation is less than 10% for the long-term external force. However, for the repetitive external force, the dominant pixel area is divided into three areas and the image uniformity is adversely affected. Based on these results, it is suggested that the curved surface detector can be applied by securing the mechanical stability against the existing radiation sensitized paper. However, further studies are needed to apply it to the flexible detector. As a result, flexible radiation sensitizers can be applied to various curved surfaces, and it is expected to be applicable to various fields such as nuclear medicine, medical treatment, and industrial fields in the future.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.69-74
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• 2017

In this study, cholesteryl 4-n-alkoxybenzoates (Chol-n), with alkyl groups used for controlling the temperature of transition to the liquid crystal phase, were synthesized, and the effects of the length of the alkyl groups on the physical properties of the liquid crystal compounds were investigated. The chemical structures and thermal and liquid crystalline properties of the synthesized compounds were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ($^1H$-NMR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and polarizing optical microscopy (POM). The synthesized compounds showed melting transition temperatures ($T_m$) in the range of $103^{\circ}C$ to $143^{\circ}C$ and all of the compounds except Chol-6 exhibited a wide liquid crystal phase temperature range of about $60^{\circ}C$ to $100^{\circ}C$. No correlation between the number of carbon atoms in the molecule and the thermal properties of the compounds was found. All of the synthesized compounds showed an enantiotropic cholesteric phase, which was accompanied by a chiral smectic phase in the compounds Chol-6, Chol-8, Chol-9, and Chol-10. All of the compounds exhibited thermochromism in the liquid crystal state, and their color changed from red to blue as the temperature was increased.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.700-708
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• 2013

Pyroprocessing has been developed for the purpose of resolving the current spent nuclear fuel management issue and enhancing the recycle of valuable resources. Pyroprocessing has been developed with the dry technologies which are performed under high temperature conditions excluding any aqueous processes. Pyro-processes which are based on the electrochemical principles require pretreatment processes and a voloxidation process is considered as a pretreatment step for an electrolytic reduction process. Various kinds of gas conditions are applicable to the voloxidation process and the understanding of Cs behavior during the process is of importance for the analyses of waste characteristics and heat load on the overall pyroprocessing. In this study, the changes of chemical compounds with the gas conditions were calculated by analyzing gas-solid reaction behavior based on the chemical equilibria on a Cs-Te-O system. $Cs_2TeO_3$ and $Cs_2TeO_4$ were selected after a Tpp diagram analysis and it was confirmed that they are relatively stable under oxidizing atmospheres while it was shown that Cs and Te would be removed by volatilization under reducing atmosphere at a high temperature. This work provided basic data for predicting Cs behavior during the voloxidation process at which compounds are chemically distributed as the first stage in the pyroprocessing and it is expected that the results would be used for setting up material balances and related purposes.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.179-184
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• 2018

In this study, we compared the measured values of the effective beam size of standard gamma irradiator with the simulation results to provide a useful means to the effective beam area determination. Results of the simulation and measured using ion chamber was distributed in a relative error of 4.5 ~ 7.3% of the case of air kerma rate. The size of the effective beam area is when the simulation was implemented in the horizontal direction 27cm, 21.6cm vertical direction, the measured result using a film was obtained similar results with the horizontal direction 26.5cm, 21.9cm vertical direction. The relative error in the horizontal direction is 1.85% and 1.38% vertical effective beam area was also similarly distributed around the field gamma rays. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that the effectiveness of the simulation was sufficient for the gamma irradiation system. In particular, it is small relative errors in the effective beam size than the air kerma rate is considered to be due to the size of the beam is determined by geometric factors rather than the capacity of the standard source. A further study is needed to improve the reliability of the photon energy distribution diagram using simulation.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.271-305
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• 2020

An effect of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical and chemical (THMC) behavior is an essential part of the performance and safety assessment of geological disposal systems for high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. Furthermore, numerical models and modeling techniques are necessary to analyze and predict the coupled THMC behavior in the disposal systems. However, phenomena associated with the coupled THMC behavior are nonlinear, and the constitutive relationships between them are not well known. Therefore, it is challenging to develop numerical models and modeling techniques to analyze and predict the coupled THMC behavior in the geological disposal systems. It is also difficult to verify and validate the development of the models and techniques because it requires expensive laboratory tests and in-situ experiments that need to be performed for a long time. DECOVALEX was initiated in 1992 to efficiently develop numerical models and modeling techniques and validate the developed models and techniques against the lab and in-situ experiments. In Korea, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has participated in DECOVALEX-2011, DECOVALEX-2015, and DECOVALEX-2019 since 2008. In this study, all tasks in the three DECOVALEX projects were introduced to the researcher in the field of rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering in Korea.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.235-250
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• 2016

In Korea, 70% of the annual rainfall falls in summer, and the number of days of extreme rainfall (over 200 mm) is increasing over time. Because rainfall is the most important trigger of landslides, it is necessary to decide a rainfall threshold for landslide warning and to develop a landslide warning model. This study selected 12 study areas that contained landslides with exactly known triggering times and locations, and also rainfall data. The feasibility of applying a Rainfall Triggering Index (RTI) to Korea is analyzed, and three RTI models that consider different time units for rainfall intensity are compared. The analyses show that the 60-minute RTI model failed to predict landslides in three of the study areas, while both the 30- and 10-minute RTI models gave successful predictions for all of the study areas. Each RTI model showed different mean response times to landslide warning: 4.04 hours in the 60-minute RTI model, 6.08 hours in the 30-minute RTI model, and 9.15 hours in the 10-minute RTI model. Longer response times to landslides were possible using models that considered rainfall intensity for shorter periods of time. Considering the large variations in rainfall intensity that may occur within short periods in Korea, it is possible to increase the accuracy of prediction, and thereby improve the early warning of landslides, using a RTI model that considers rainfall intensity for periods of less than 1 hour.

• Solar Energy
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.177-183
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• 1998

The thermal performance of a heating board with microencapsualted PCM was investigated and compared to conventional heating board. The employed PCM was the myristic acid $$ and was encapsulated by the multiple layers of PMMA and paraffin wax. The size of encapsulated PCM was $1{\sim}1.5mm$. Accoring to ANSI/ASHRAE test procedure, the close-loop test configuration was installed. Air was used as the heat transfer fluid and a calibrated orifice was employed for the measurement of air flow rates. The thermal performance test of two different heating boards(with 10 wt% PCM and without PCM) was conducted for different air flow rates and the heat transfer characteristics during cooling was compared. The test results showed that the surface temperature of heating board with 10 wt% PCM maintained higher during the cooling process than that of the heating board without PCM and experimentally determined heat transfer coefficient in heating board with PCM showed higher value compared to heating board without PCM.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.227-234
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• 2012

In this study, we make simulation of density log using a Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) algorithm to make an analysis on density logging under different borehole environments, since density logging is affected by various borehole conditions like borehole size, density of borehole fluid, thickness and type of casing, and so on. MCNP algorithm has been widely used for simulation of problems of nuclear particle transportation. In the simulation, we consider the specific configuration of a tool (Robertson Geologging Co. Ltd) that Korea institute of geoscience and mineral resources (KIGAM) has used. In order to measure accurate bulk density of a formation, it is essential to make a calibration and correction chart for the tool under considerations. Through numerical simulation, this study makes calibration plot of the density tool in material with several known bulk densities and with boreholes of several different diameters. In order to make correction charts for the density logging, we simulate and analyze measurements of density logging under different borehole conditions by considering borehole size, density of borehole fluid, and presence of casing.